Cool Hunting
| 08 May 2007view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Luxury Printing
by Phuong-Cac Nguyen
One quick flip through São Paulo-based Luxury Printing magazine is all it takes to realize this is a different type of publication. High-quality and lacking any hints at pretentiousness, the first issue melds innovative graphic design with free-form creativity. The 128-page mag is the creation of graphic designers and architects Vicente and Nasha Gil, with the help of publishers Grafica Aquarela SA, and was developed as a statement against what they saw as graphic design bending under the stress of commercialism.
Definitively against the issue existing in the digital realm (maybe this is why I haven’t heard back from Vicente about being featured on this site), instead Luxury Printing embraces the physically tangible. It follows that each of the spreads is uniquely its own, from type of paper used, including plastic, to other aesthetic embellishments (like Post-Its, pop-outs and inserts) that adorn pages.
Among the contributors are Gil’s current and former students at the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo. Unfortunately you can only find the issue in Brazil, but click on the names under the “Shitbusters” section to get an idea of the issue or see more images here.
Alabama Builds Shirt
by Ami Kealoha
Handmade in the U.S. with organic cotton and benefiting Architecture for Humanity's Gulf Coast Project, the Alabama Builds tee is a win-win-win situation. An offshoot of the Alabama Project (the short-lived adventure in couture made from recycled materials by local seamstresses in Alabama) the shirt uses the reverse appliqué technique that the Project applied to basketball jerseys, dresses and shirts to much success. The more minimalist cousin to the detailed florals and intricate constructions of Project Alabama, the black and white tee simply reads "Alabama" in a sans serif font. It's $75 from Alabama Chafin with all profits going to Architecture for Humanity.
Maker Faire 2007 Ticket Giveaway
by Ami Kealoha
We're proud sponsors of Make magazine's second annual Maker Faire taking place this 19-20 May in San Mateo, CA. With a workshop on electro-mechanical Blinkybugs that respond to outside stimulus with blinking LED eyes (center), a exhibit about kite rigs for digital cameras to take stunning aerial photos and Bruce Shapiro's algorithm-based sculptures (left), the Faire promises to be a nerd paradise.
We're excited to check it out and also excited to have 30 tickets to the event to give away. To enter, go to the "Contact" form at the bottom of the home page, select "Maker Faire Giveaway" and send us your best idea for a Make-worthy project. We'll chose 30 winners at random from the entries. Please submit your entry by Midnight EST, 11 May 2007. Also note that each ticket is good for one of the two days (your choice) and of course you should live in the San Francisco Bay Area or be able to travel there.
If you'd rather not take your chances, you can buy tickets here.
Urs Fischer at Cockatoo Island
by Lost At E Minor
Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour has a fascinating—if checkered—history. A former convict prison, a shipyard and a reformatory for wayward girls, the island also has a fascinating present as the site of a new installation by Swiss artist Urs Fischer. Fischer visited Sydney under the auspices of Kaldor Art Projects, whose previous projects have included Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Wrapped Coast–One Million Square Feet (1969) and Jeff Koons' floral Puppy (1995). Visit Cockatoo Island between now and 3 June 2007 to view Fischer's artfully clunky and wonderfully gritty works – a skeleton climbs into/escapes from a packing case, impossibly contorted forearms are suspended from the ceiling and in the installation's central piece, a huge knobbly structure, recalling both tree branches and disembodied limbs, spans the island's central forecourt. A ghoulish spectacle.
